


An Unexpected Discovery

by Gardngoyle



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-02 23:22:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16796737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gardngoyle/pseuds/Gardngoyle
Summary: Blackwall and Vhenaria Lavellan learn something new about each other.





	An Unexpected Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> This is before the Revelations quest.

‘Dove, you really are going to have to learn to read.’ Blackwall heard Dorian say as he climbed the stairs to Vhenaria’s quarters.

‘I know, _Mir’dath_ ,’ she replied, ‘But when? How? In secret?’

‘Not necessarily. You do realize that your advisors already know you can’t read. You are a very clever woman, but Leliana is more so. No one mentions it because you are embarrassed by it.’

‘That’s why I check everything with the two men I trust the most,’ Vhenaria turned to Blackwall and kissed his cheek.

Blackwall brushed his fingertips through her hair, ‘Good evening, My Lady, am I interrupting?’

‘No,’ said Dorian, ‘you are just in time. There is a stack of reports here and I’m tired of reading them out loud.’

‘Finally sick of the sound of your own voice?’ Blackwall smirked, ‘I thought the day would never come.’

‘Oaf.’

‘Snob.’

‘Lummox.’

‘Gentlemen,’ Vhenaria interrupted with a smile.

‘Where?’ Dorian and Blackwall said together, just to make her laugh.

Vhenaria giggled. ‘Before you go, Dorian, explain this report about the Venatori.’

Blackwall stepped away from the desk, vaguely listening while he checked the fire. He leaned one hand against the mantle and knocked over the carved halla he had given Vhenaria just a few weeks before. He thought of the look in her eyes, how they shone, when she had unwrapped the untidy cloth bundle. Blackwall picked the figure up and set it right on its tiny legs. It was only then he noticed the carved toy next to it. A bear. This figure was obviously older and had been handled often. Blackwall reached for it, hand trembling, heart hammering. _Couldn’t be. It just looked the same._ His hand closed around it. _Too small. No. My hands are much bigger now_. How was this possible? Blackwall lifted the bear from the shelf and turned it over in his hands, almost reverently.

‘Blackwall?’

He looked up at the sound of his name. ‘I’m sorry, what?’ Had one of them asked him a question?

‘Are you alright?’ Vhenaria crossed the space between the desk and the fireplace, ‘you look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

‘How can you tell under all that fur,’ Dorian quipped as he rose to leave. ‘I’ll see you later at the tavern. Bull challenged Varric to a game of Wicked Grace. Probably lose more than his shirt.’

‘Bull, doesn’t wear a shirt,’ Vhenaria smiled.

“My point exactly,’ Dorian said. As he descended the stairs his velvety voice floated back up to them, ‘Start teaching her to read, Blackwall. You’ll be perfect with small words.’

But Blackwall wasn’t listening. He was staring at the bear. Vhenaria covered his fingers with hers. ‘ _Ma’arlath_. What is wrong?’

‘Where did you get this?’ Blackwall’s throat was dry.

‘That?’ she touched the bear’s head with the tip of one finger, ‘Is one of my very favorite things. Honestly when you gave me the halla, I thought of giving you this, but I couldn’t part with it. I’ve had that since I was four or five. A little boy gave it to me the very first day I ever met a human.’

‘A boy?’ Blackwall sometimes forgot that he and Vhenaria were the same age. Because elves aged slower than humans once they reached adulthood, she still looked young and spritely, while he was starting to feel the aches and pains of what he hoped was mid-life. Even so, how was this possible?

‘He was taller than me, but not any older,’ Vhenaria said. She looked into the middle distance as though she could see the little boy standing on the road, ‘Strong. With black hair and blue eyes. I can see him clearly, like it happened yesterday. I think remember someone calling him Thom.’

‘My mother called me Thom.’ Blackwall said. It was barely a whisper.

Vhenaria looked up at him, ‘What did you say?’ She searched his face but he was still staring at the figure in his hands. ‘Blackwall…. do you mean that was you?’ The free Marches were a big place. How could it be that the first human she had ever spoken to was also the human that now had her heart? 

Blackwall’s fingertip had found the telltale spot on the bear’s back leg. He turned the toy over and looked. ‘See here? This nick? A slip of the knife from the night my father carved this for me...I pretended it was a scar from a badly healed wound.’ He looked into her eyes, ‘I regretted giving this bear to you the moment I did it. But you were so happy. And only ‘Dirty Vints’ took back gifts freely given.’

‘I didn’t know what the Common word was for it,’ she smiled. Blackwall really was the boy she had met that day on the road. She couldn’t believe it, but it somehow seemed right.

‘You said - I like your dog.’ Blackwall chuckled.

‘You held it up and said - it’s a bear.’ She folded her hands over his, ‘you made me repeat the word, so I wouldn’t forget.’

‘You were so little and sweet. With your bare feet and a twig in your hair. I thought,’ he blushed a little and looked away, ‘I thought you didn’t have shoes because you were poor. Not because you were Dalish.’

‘Is that why you gave it to me? You thought I had no toys of my own.’ Vhenaria beamed at him, ‘That’s so...kind.’’

‘I was afraid you would lose it or throw it away.’ Blackwall caught her gaze once more, ‘But you kept it. All this time.’

‘I did. I kept it with me everywhere. I used to sleep with it. When _Babae_...when my father died. I pretended it was a magic bear that would keep me safe. I-’ Vhenaria looked away embarrassed, ‘I sometimes wondered where that boy had gone. What was he doing? Was he as nice as I thought, or would he call me knife-ear like some humans do?’ She slid her arms around Blackwall. He held her tight, eyes closed. Gripping the toy bear so hard it left marks in his palm.

Blackwall had to tell her the truth. There would never be a better time than now. Maybe she wasn’t the Herald, but the Maker had brought them together for a reason. Perhaps she was the one who could help him finally put the past behind him.

‘As it turns out, I couldn’t ask for a better man than you,’ she said, squeezing him tight.

The moment was slipping. ‘My Lady, I...’ he trailed off. Once more he wasn’t going to be able to say it. She had such confidence in him, such love. He couldn’t stand the thought of hurting her. Hurting them. Blackwall knew couldn’t keep his secret from her forever, and the longer he waited the more hurt she would be. But, once again, the words died in his throat. He could face down darkspawn and red templars without so much as flinching, but could not face up to the loss of her faith in him as the person he was now. So he deflected. Blackwall hid the big lie behind another small truth, ‘For years I thought the word _Da’len_ was your name.’

Venaria laughed quietly and moved to sit with him on the couch. ‘Tell me more about what you remember from that day. I know it was warm and sunny.’

Blackwall sat with her, an arm around her shoulders, and told her everything he could remember. They forgot about joining their friends at the Herald’s Rest. Instead, they talked and laughed about their childhoods late into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Vhenaria Lavellan is a dual wielding rogue
> 
> "Mir'dath" is my attempt at parsing out a Dalish word for 'Sweetie.'
> 
> Since I started writing DA fic, Dorian has always called Vhenaria - 'Dove.' I didn't know where it came from or why he did it until recently. I have about 80 stories in my head right now and the story of why he does that is one of them.


End file.
